‘We lie on the floor till someone buys us’: shocking allegations of UAE agencies’ abuse of domestic workers
Women interviewed by the Guardian report UAE agencies denying them food and passports, holding them captive, and ‘selling’ them on social media.
Original Article: The Guardian by Katie McQue – 12th October 2023.
Women seeking jobs as domestic workers in the UAE allege they are being detained and abused in squalid accommodation, while recruiters sell them over apps and social media platforms to household employers, according to interviews and documents seen by the Guardian.
In a series of interviews conducted over several years, 14 women from east Africa and the Philippines recounted their experiences with recruitment agencies, including alleging they were denied food, held captive and treated violently.
The Guardian has also seen evidence that the women are being marketed in an “exploitative” way reminiscent of slavery, according to one expert, with employers charged less for the services of black domestic workers and being told they do not even need to provide them with proper bedrooms.
The women’s testimony gives a rare insight into what life is like in domestic worker agency accommodation as migrants wait, in limbo, for an employer to take them on. It is a process that can take months, with women often being returned to the agencies at the whim of an employer.
“The moment we landed [agency staff] took our passports. Then we went to this house. In one little room, eight or nine of us slept. Using mobile phones wasn’t allowed,” says Margarita*, a Filipina who was recruited by an agency in the Emirate of Ajman. “We lie together on the floor until someone buys us.”
Migrant worker testimony
Those interviewed were all recruited for work in the UAE in their home countries, some by members of their communities acting as brokers and others by responding to adverts on Facebook. Many expected to be placed immediately with an employer when they reached Dubai. Instead, they were locked in their agency’s accommodation for up to several months without earning a salary to support their families back home.
Angelica Pine, 28, was held for four months by an agency in 2019. She claims she was violently assaulted by a female member of staff.
“She has a bad temper. She kicked me, threw me in her room, pulled my hair, slapped my face, and also she took my personal things like my mobile phone,” says Pine.
The Guardian has spoken to some of these women for up to three years. Some have now made it back to their home countries, after receiving repatriation assistance from their embassies, and are able to give their testimony on their experiences. However, several say they personally know other women who are trapped in recruitment agency accommodation.
Mary*, 34, from Kenya, is stuck in the UAE and told the Guardian she wants to leave her employer. She is exhausted from working more than 18 hours each day, with no day off, for a salary equivalent to $327 (£270) a month. She alleges the employers she was placed with installed cameras in her bedroom, and she says it is difficult to change clothes because she knows they can see her. She asked her recruiters for help to leave but says they accused her of “creating drama”.
“I am still afraid of the agency because I am still under them,” says Mary, who was not given a contract before starting her job. “We are suffering.”
UAE recruitment agencies routinely advertise the women they are holding for sale online. The Guardian has located dozens of these adverts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, where women’s photos are displayed, alongside their personal information, where prospective buyers leave comments on the pages and inquire about prices.
All of these adverts were posted by recruitment agencies that had been awarded a licence to operate from the UAE government, and are supposedly certified as companies that protect the rights of the employers and domestic workers.
“The staff force you to put on a hijab, then they film a video of you,” says Nia, 27, from Kenya. “If someone likes your profile, they come to the office, and you do a live interview. You have no option; you need a job.” Nia ultimately spent three months locked in a compound in Dubai that her agency used to hold women in 2021.
Maids.cc, a licensed recruitment agency, has an app and website from where people can select, order and pay for a maid without even meeting her first.
“Get a full-time maid or a maid visa online in 5 minutes. Cancel anytime,” the website states. “You get the maid on the same day. View maids’ videos and hire your favourite. We’ll Uber her to you on the same day.”
It further promotes the convenience of its services on its frequently asked questions page: “Zero legal liability. Maid stays on our visa, so you’ll never have to worry about any legal consequences. If anything goes wrong (eg runaway maid, pregnancy), we’re responsible to deal with any lawsuits or visits to police stations, not you.”
The monthly prices users pay per maid are according to race, the website states – with employers charged less for the services of a black maid. “Filipinas AED3,500 ($952)/month” and “Africans AED2,700 ($735)/month,” it states, but does not disclose the amount of the payment that is actually received by the maid in salary.
The working and living conditions afforded to maids are also decided by race. The website states that Filipina maids require a bedroom of their own to sleep in, while African maids do not.
“It’s hard to know where to start: is the worst thing pricing humans by their race and nationality, promising to deliver a woman to your house by Uber same-day delivery, or claiming that African employees do not need bedrooms?” says James Lynch, co-director of FairSquare, a human rights nonprofit organisation, after reviewing the matters presented to him by the Guardian.
“Demeaning, commodifying and exploiting people like this recalls the trade in enslaved people, conducted online rather than at physical markets,” says Lynch.
Separately, another agency, Leadership Tadbeer (sometimes known as Tadbeer WTC), in Abu Dhabi, advertises maids on TikTok and Instagram. On Instagram, the women advertised are from Indonesia, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. Their services are being sold for between AED1,100 and AED1,400 a month.
“The practice of advertising domestic workers based on national origin with their personal details has long been a practice in the UAE,” says Rothna Begum, of Human Rights Watch. “This shows how little the authorities are doing to protect domestic workers rights.”
A spokesperson for Leadership Tadbeer said: “Regarding the issue you highlighted, here in the UAE our minister of human resources has organised the relationship between the sponsor, worker and agents.
“Regarding the salary, don’t forget there is also free accommodation, free food, free personal staff, phone allowance and good health insurance. You can see here in UAE, more than 200 nationalities live together safely. Everyone here respects each other.”
Meanwhile, the Dubai-based Al Forsan Tadbeer agency adverts on Instagram and Facebook list the maid’s names, ages, marital status, passport number, nationality, number of children and weight, and describe their “complexion” in terms such as “fair”, “black”, etc, alongside their photographs.
“There is a close association between dehumanising practices in the recruitment process and wider abuse,” says Lynch. “Put simply, the less that recruitment agents and employers acknowledge the humanity of domestic workers, the less obliged they feel to treat them with dignity and respect.”
A spokesperson for the UAE government told the Guardian: “The UAE maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards workplace abuse. UAE law also prohibits any form of abuse towards employees who undertake workshops regarding their rights and ways to report abuse.
“We conduct comprehensive investigations whenever individuals and/or entities act in such a manner that contravenes UAE legislation. Those that are found to be at fault are held accountable in line with UAE law and legislation.
“UAE labour law mandates that all employees must have paid leave, rest days, medical insurance, accommodation, meals, possession of their personal IDs, and access to free-of-charge legal support. The UAE continues to take active and resolute steps in implementing laws, regulations and monitoring measures to enhance the working conditions of its labour force and address any gap.”
Maids.cc and Al Forsan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
* Names have been changed to protect the identity of those interviewed.
Revealed: allegations of abuse and captivity without pay at UAE’s lucrative recruitment agencies
Original Article: The Guardian by Katie McQue – 12th October 2023.
Domestic make claims of being locked up without salary until work is found, denied proper food and beaten for leaving abusive employers.
As Nia scrambled to the top of a Dubai compound wall, she paused for a moment. Behind her were a group of fellow Kenyan women, also being held captive, who had helped her climb up. On the other side of the wall there was an expanse of busy streets in an unfamiliar land.
“Jump!” the women urged, “Go, go, go.” And she did.
In 2021, Nia, 27, arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be a domestic worker. Her aim was to make enough money to secure a better future for herself and her family. She believed a job was waiting for her when she landed but, instead, staff from the employment agency Shamma Almahairi Domestic Workers Services Center took her to its compound.
Once there, she claims staff swiftly confiscated her phone and passport, before locking her in a cramped room with more than 12 other women. Nia says she languished there for three months, without a job or salary, until she could tolerate it no longer.
“They told us the agency belongs to the government, and there was nothing we could do,” says Nia, who escaped while the staff were on a lunch break. “I had to run.”
Abuse within the UAE’s kafala system, which ties low-paid migrant workers’ legal status to their employers, has been well-documented. Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to abuse within their employers’ home, and those who do leave without their employers’ permission face criminal charges for “absconding”, punishable by fines, arrest, detention and deportation. Less well known are the conditions within the recruitment centres where women are kept, sometimes for months, until an employer is found.
The UAE has a population of 10.1 million, with migrants accounting for 90% of its inhabitants. Domestic workers are in high demand, making it a lucrative trade for recruitment agencies.
Domestic worker recruitment agencies require a licence from the government to operate. However, the Guardian has spoken with six women from Kenya and Uganda, including Nia, who alleged that they were abused, denied proper food or medical care, beaten and detained at Shamma Almahairi between 2020 and 2021, while the agency was licensed. Their names have been changed to protect their identities.
“The kafala system means that domestic workers are no longer trapped just by their employer, but also now by recruiters,” says Rothna Begum, a senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This leaves them exposed to further abuse, including trafficking into forced labour, by recruiters in addition to their employers, and their rights under law become meaningless.”
When they arrived in Dubai, the women were shocked by the treatment they were subjected to, which included insufficient food. “We were given one plate to share between about eight people,” says Mariam, 32, from Kampala, who arrived in the UAE in November 2020. “We had to fight over the food. I cried because of that plate.”
Each day, the women say they would be driven from their accommodation to the agency in the Jumeirah area of Dubai. There, they’d be held in a room and brought out if a potential customer wanted to interview them.
The women were apparently powerless in deciding which employer they may want to work for and live with. They also claim the company’s rules meant they would not get any days off, they say, despite the UAE’s regulations stipulating workers should get one day to rest each week. Meanwhile, their families back home were worried about them. This was exacerbated by the fact they weren’t in regular contact because their phones were confiscated.
These matters were put to Shamma Almahairi and did not respond to a request request for comment.
When an Indonesian woman called Christina tried to escape the Shamma Almahairi accommodation in January 2021, she was allegedly subjected to a serious beating, several women interviewed said.
Christina, in her 50s, decided to flee while hanging laundry on the rooftop, by crossing over to the neighbouring building. She was caught. An Egyptian manager of the agency then allegedly administered the beating while the other women were made to watch.
“He was kicking her stomach,” says Catherine, 44. “The lady was crying because she was in pain. Later, he dragged her outside and pushed her inside a car. We were crying, but we couldn’t do anything to help.”
Christina never returned to the accommodation, and the women did not see her again. If women were returned by their employers, they were also beaten.
“They beat you when you go back to the office from the sponsor. It’s normal for them to beat housemaids in front of other staff,” claims Mercy, 27, from Kenya. “They would beat ladies in front of us as a warning.”
The UAE government revoked Shamma Almahairi’s licence to operate in September, due to unpaid fines and other bureaucratic offences. Yet, women are still apparently being held in its accommodation, claims Mercy.
“One of my friends has been there for three months and another has been held there for almost three weeks,” she adds. “I don’t know how I can help them.” Four of the women interviewed are stranded in the UAE and unable to exit the country to return home without paying large fines or possibly serving jail terms because of their irregular visa status, they say.
A spokesperson for the UAE government told the Guardian: “The UAE maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards workplace abuse.
“UAE law also prohibits any form of abuse towards employees who undertake workshops regarding their rights and ways to report abuse.
“We conduct comprehensive investigations whenever individuals and/or entities act in such a manner that contravenes UAE legislation. Those that are found to be at fault are held accountable in line with UAE law and legislation.
“The UAE continues to take active and resolute steps in implementing laws, regulations, and monitoring measures to enhance the working conditions of its labour force and address any gap.”
“One of my friends has been there for three months and another has been held there for almost three weeks,” she adds. “I don’t know how I can help them.” Four of the women interviewed are stranded in the UAE and unable to exit the country to return home without paying large fines or possibly serving jail terms because of their irregular visa status, they say.
A spokesperson for the UAE government told the Guardian: “The UAE maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards workplace abuse.
“UAE law also prohibits any form of abuse towards employees who undertake workshops regarding their rights and ways to report abuse.
“We conduct comprehensive investigations whenever individuals and/or entities act in such a manner that contravenes UAE legislation. Those that are found to be at fault are held accountable in line with UAE law and legislation.
“The UAE continues to take active and resolute steps in implementing laws, regulations, and monitoring measures to enhance the working conditions of its labour force and address any gap.”
‘I tried to leave but they dragged me into the office’
Catherine arrived in Dubai from Kenya in October 2020. Her recruitment agency placed her in five different homes to work. None of the jobs lasted long, and most of her employers were abusive.
In the first house, she was given one meal each day, which was usually two slices of bread and black tea. CCTV cameras made it impossible for her to eat any additional food without her employer’s permission. She was locked in her bedroom at night.
“One day, when I was ironing, she [her employer] came next to me and started spitting on my face,” she says. “I asked her, why are you doing this to me? She shouted and left the room.”
Catherine asked to have a day off on Christmas Day so that she could celebrate with friends. Initially, her employer agreed but then changed her mind on the morning of 25 December.
“She yelled at me and chased me outside. I was shocked, and she followed me, shouting that I should leave. The next thing I knew, she was throwing my belongings outside.”
In one house, Catherine’s employer hit her over the head with a frying pan for cleaning it incorrectly. The same employer made her sleep in a closet and confiscated her phone, she said. She decided to run away, and took a taxi to her recruitment agency’s office. Despite this, staff at the Shamma Almahairi agency punished her for leaving.
“The staff asked me to go back to my employer’s house, and I refused. I tried to take my bag and leave, but they dragged me into the office,” she says. “They were shouting and insulting me and claiming I didn’t want to work.”
* The names of all those interviewed have been changed.
See also: 10th Oct 2023: McDonald’s and Amazon’s ties to alleged labor trafficking: Five key takeaways.
See also: 3rd Feb 2023: London – Foreign diplomats trap and abuse Indonesian and Filipino domestic workers.
See also: 9th Oct 2023: Nepal’s migrant workers suffering ‘alarming’ rate of fertility problems.
